Well….as everyone predicted, proposal one to fix the roads here failed by a huge margin…and, as predicted, the repubs are misinterpreting the result to mean that the people here support their tax cut at all cost policies that have put us in this mess over the past 6 years. What these idiots need to do is to read the polls of why people voted no…the largest being that the legislature abdicated its responsibility to the state and the people to maintain the infrastructure just to give tax cuts to corporations and the rich. The problem is that tax cuts do not work…let me say that again…tax cuts do not work to spur growth or increase tax revenues…never have, never will…and the giveaway over the past 6 years of repub control is estimated to be 3.5 billion dollars…more than enough to repair the roads, fix the schools, and to share the revenue with our cities, which is where the growth comes from…not giving tax cuts to millionaires with the blind hope they will invest and create jobs. Now, let’s put an end to the idea that we are overtaxed, too…that honor goes to Minnesota who has a tax rate that is 30% higher than Michigan and has outpaced us in growth every year…and they fund their schools, fix their roads, and their cities are thriving. We need to stop this tax cut nonsense that has put many repub controlled states into this same downward spiral we see here in Michigan…and stop the faith based economics that has kept Michigan from the growth it could accomplish with a rational tax policy…I don’t mind paying a little more in taxes…just as long as it doesn’t end up in a CEO’s pocket like the last tax cut for corporations did….geez…
Category Archives: Politics
Another laffer…
Well…I am just amazed at the stupidity of people in the US these days…I wonder if it’s always been this way and the stupidity is just being better reported now or if this is a new thing…all I know is that this one almost takes the cake…don’t want to say that it does take the cake because the pattern has been that there is more and more stupidity of greater and greater depth every week. This one is a huge laffer, though…with a woman from Nebraska suing all gay people on the entire planet for breaking “religious and moral” laws…and she did it with a handwritten, misspelled, and lacking in punctuation petition….the suit is filed as “Driskell v. homosexuals” and slams gay people as “liers, deceivers, and thieves”…yeah, liar is spelled wrong multiple times in the suit….I really don’t know why I write about this stuff any more…it is a little soul crushing to think that people have so little to do and are so ignorant to think a suit like this would ever result in anything, but they continue…like the drip, drip, drip, of water torture, this idiocy is taking away the little hope of sanity I have for this country…how do these people live everyday? Geez….
The crazy train picks up speed in Texas….
Well…just when I thought it couldn’t get any crazier in Texas, the crazy train there just keeps on picking up speed….the latest head slapper comes form the newly elected governor who put the national guard there on alert the other day…can you guess the reason? Nope, you will never get this one in a million years….his reason was that he thinks that the feds are going to take over Texas, confiscate all the guns, and lock up the politicians. Yeah…from an elected governor no less…we have this new level of crazy that was triggered from the annual military practices that are held at the military bases there every year….and have been since the bases were established over 50 years ago. I wonder if it’s something in the water since ole Ted Cruz jumped on the crazy bandwagon and sent a letter to someone in the federal government asking them to reassure Texans that they have nothing to fear from these exercises. Now, it makes it really easy for me when these idiots go over the edge, like they seem to do about once a week now, but, c’mon…really? This takeover would just never happen….and now this idiot governor has the righties there worked up and polishing their guns getting ready for an attack…..let’s waste more time and money getting ready for something that is just a delusion….and not fund schools….geez…
No on proposal 1
Well…if you don’t remember, there is an election tomorrow to vote on whether to raise the sales tax here in Michigan to repair the terrible roads that all of us drive on. I am going to vote no on this proposal for a number of reasons…the first being that sales tax increases are hardest on the poor and middle class as a percentage of their income and that is not a fair way to pay for infrastructure projects. My second reason is that the people who do the most damage to the roads, corporations that use them for commerce, won’t have to kick a dime in to pay for all that damage…where is the tax increase on them to help? On top of the sales tax increase, the proposal would raise the registration fee on every car by almost $50 dollars per car that normal folks can’t just write off as corporations do. To raise the the 1.3 billion dollars that this proposal is supposed to raise, why not just rescind the 1.3 billion dollar tax cut the corporations got that was paid for by me and other people living on their retirement savings? This proposal is just another failure by the repub run legislature to do their jobs as they were elected to do…never before did a sitting legislature in Michigan abdicate their responsibility to do what was necessary to keep the state moving…I think it’s just a ploy for them to be able to say they never raised taxes…that the people did…what a bunch of crap…geez…
Charges in Baltimore…
Well…that was quick…it only took a couple of weeks and a little investigation and there have been charges filed against the cops that were involved in the Grey killing. It’s about time that these blue coated thugs were held accountable…I know, innocent until proven guilty but to even have charges filed in one of these killings is progress from my point of view. And, when the charges were filed, the prosecutor also reiterated that Grey had not committed a crime…the cops were just screwing with him because they could… they think it’s fun to abuse the people they are supposed to serve and protect…the question I have is “are these cops this stupid to continue the abusing when videos are catching cops all over the country?” I’m glad that the trend is toward justice…now we just need the rest of them caught and prosecuted….
Bernie Sanders is in….
Well…got a bit of good new today with the announcement that Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, is running for president. You’ve heard me talk here of my admiration for Bernie and his untiring efforts to tilt the scale back towards the middle class and actually do something about the rich taking everything in this country. One of the things this candidacy will do is push the dems back to the left and away from the corporate wing of the party that is the home of the Clintons since he is an avowed socialist that truly believes that the country is better when it has a regulated economy, not the winner takes all one the the repubs have championed for the past 30 years or so. I can hear the heads explode on the right when they hear a real socialist talk about equity and the rigged economy we now have…but they will also hear of the separation of church and state…something the christian taliban here just can’t abide. I am happy that Bernie is now in the conversation…there will now be ideas talked about, not just personalities…go Bernie!
I just can’t believe this…..
Well…with all of the coverage of police brutality across the US, there was a story yesterday that just made my jaw drop…had a hard time believing it. Since 2004, Chicago has paid out $560 million dollars to settle lawsuits for brutality by its police force…yep that’s $560 MILLION dollars in just the past 10 years….just think of how many school lunches could be bought for that money, how many schools could be rebuilt, and how may roads could be fixed. In the era of cuts, cuts, and more cuts to services, no one thinks there is something wrong with this? Something needs to be done and done now to end this nonsense….anyone who is the object of one of these suits that is settled should be fired and anyone who helped cover it up should go, too….the police in the country are out of control and the daily revelation of another, and another person being killed or maimed by them is just wrong…fire them all….geez…
Ted Cruz is still an idiot….
Well…I hope you saw the grandstanding this idiot did earlier in the week when he stood on the senate floor and railed and railed against Loretta Lynch getting approved for the new AG to replace Eric Holder….saying she would never get approved if he had anything to do about it…and here’s the irony…after that little tantrum the idiot didn’t even show up for the vote today…yep, when he could no longer get his followers worked up or keep himself in the spotlight, ole Ted just stops doing his job and doesn’t even bother to show up. Now, that would make great presidential material don’t you think? If anything in his presidential duties didn’t personally benefit him, he just won’t show up…and, we all know why he did it…so his no vote wouldn’t be on the record and couldn’t be turned into a negative campaign ad. What a self centered idiot…..geez…
I’m shocked….but happy…
Well…was just reading “The Detroit Free Press” on my phone and this bit of shocking but happy news came across the screen…the Inkster cop who beat a man bloody and who had been sued many, many times for brutality is being charged with two felonies relating to the latest of his long list of beatings. Yep, finally, one of these cops is going to be held accountable for this crap; for beating an unarmed man and planting drugs on him to try to justify the beating…but, the prosecutor has just dropped the last charge of possession of drugs of the beaten man so justice appears to have been served. But, this can’t be the last time one of these thugs is held accountable…and it appears that with all of the added scrutiny and the videos that are surfacing, baby steps are beginning that may just lead to reform….I know this may just be wishful thinking but baby steps are better than no steps…it’s about time….
This is what happens when you don’t lock up criminals….
Well…I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to the presidential elections next year…it seems that the right is back to the same old crap with the same old people…tax cuts for the rich, gut everything else and grift as much money as you can. But, the worst part of the whole thing is the recycling of the criminals in foreign policy that were responsible for the debacle of the Iraq war, torture, and 2 trillion dollars in debt that we didn’t need to spend on an enemy that was faked from the start. These people are coming out of the woodwork for one reason and one reason only: the failure of the Obama administration to prosecute the clear lawbreaking that was done by Bush, Cheney and the rest of their administration that lied us into war and then tortured in violation of international law. By doing that, Obama broke the law, too, and the international conventions that don’t allow us to decide whether or not to prosecute those who torture or order torture…we are obligated to do so by treaty. Do you ever wonder why ole GW Bush and Cheney never leave the country? They would be arrested and sent to the Hague for war crimes trials just as other despots and criminals have been. This is what happens when you don’t lock up criminals…like cockroaches, they come crawling out from under their rocks and, since they were never charged with war crimes, spew their warmongering crap again and again….there is no statute of limitations on war crimes…let’s hope the next president has the guts to do what’s right….geez…